Sending love from us to you by Christopher Funk

Sending love from Christopher Funk to all. February has long been a month of romance. It is the month associated with Valentine's Day celebrations. Valentine’s Day, also called St. Valentine’s Day, is when lovers express their affection with greetings and gifts. This holiday has origins in the Roman festival of Lupercalia, held in mid-February. The festival, which celebrated the coming of spring, included fertility rites and the pairing off of women with men by lottery. At the end of the 5th century, Pope Gelasius I replaced Lupercalia with St. Valentine’s Day. It came to be celebrated as a day of romance from about the 14th century.

Who was Valentine exactly, and what does he have to do with chocolate hearts?

Saint Valentine’s Day was a feast day in the Catholic religion, added to the liturgical calendar around 500 AD. The day was commemorated for two martyred roman priests named Valentine. However, very little was known about these two priests, and, because there were conflicting reports on the Saint Valentine Day story, the feast day was removed from the Christian liturgical calendar in 1969.